


In Which Lewis Finally Stops and Takes A Good Long Look at Arthur Instead of Just Trying To Kill Him First

by TtotheCofA



Series: Tales from Tempo [13]
Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: OT3 setting implied but nothing happens here, Post-Hellbent, single use of the F-word
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-20 02:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20667617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TtotheCofA/pseuds/TtotheCofA
Summary: But he cuts it awfully close.





	In Which Lewis Finally Stops and Takes A Good Long Look at Arthur Instead of Just Trying To Kill Him First

**Author's Note:**

> I got inspired by my own post about a theory that I saw circulate the fandom over a year ago and haven't been able to find since. Enjoy!

The sudden stop whipped his head back, but the impact Arthur was expecting never happened.

Opening his eyes, he saw nothing but stars, at first. The flashes finally cleared to reveal strange metal walls, and it took a few more seconds for him to put together the strange vista with the pain in his neck, and the way his shirt pulled uncomfortably around his neck and shoulders. He tried to lift his head, but pain laced through his neck, and Arthur whimpered involuntarily, squeezing his eyes shut again.

Before he could lift his good arm, whatever was holding him up suddenly laid him down on a cold, metal floor, and let go of his shirt. Wiggling his right hand between the floor and his neck in the hopes that contact and pressure might lessen the pain, Arthur opened his eyes once more, and stared.

The same ghost - Lewis? Not Lewis. Couldn’t be Lewis. Couldn’t be- that had thrown him over the cliff was standing over him, staring back with an expressionless skull, and dark eye sockets illuminated only by sharp, magenta flames. The events of the past ten minutes spiraled through Arthur’s head again, and his mind came to the same screeching halt it had during the freefall. For a long minute, neither one of them moved….but then something small and cold poked his cheek, and Arthur jumped like a startled antelope.

He tried to sit up - to scoot away, to run - but he only made it a foot or so in his panicked flailing before his prosthetic sparked and gave way, and he collapsed back to the floor of the trailer. The little pink spirit (one of the ones that had chased him through the cave-that-wasn’t-really-a-cave) that had poked him shrank back, looking for all the world like a scolded child, and retreated to hide behind the bigger ghost.

“You’re…you?” The ghost finally spoke, sounding confused and…horrified. Arthur tried hard not to think about how familiar his voice sounded, now that he had seen their face. “Aren’t you? You don’t have the-….o-or the-…” The ghost made a gesture towards his own face, referencing something Arthur couldn’t understand. He still couldn’t find his own voice, preoccupied as he was by wondering why he wasn’t dead yet, but he wasn’t given a lot of time to try to find it, anyway. More little spirits appeared behind the ghost, whispering and chittering in soft voices that spoke no real words, and the ghost’s expression seemed to harden.

“…I have to know.” The ghost said out loud. Arthur thought, briefly, that this was a weird thing to say to a near-murder victim. Know what “I’m sorry, but…I have to know for sure.” The ghost leaned down again, and about the time their hand grabbed a fistful of his wrinkled shirt, Arthur realized that he probably should have tried to run again.

“W-wait…!” Arthur scrabbled at the ghost’s dark sleeve with his good hand as he was lifted off the ground again. The ghost was really Lewis, but Lewis was dead, and Lewis wanted him dead, but then he didn’t?? Everything was happening too fast and he didn’t have any time to process. “Wait, wait, stop-!”

The interior of the trailer suddenly turned fuzzy, and the magenta ghosts blurred and swirled until he couldn’t tell them from the phosphenes bouncing around behind his lids. Arthur couldn’t remember closing his eyes, and tried to open them again, but nothing changed. He could hear voices, in the distance…Vivi’s, Mystery’s, and his own. He couldn’t hear what they were saying - they were either too quiet, or too far away - but he could hear another voice…and there was no mistaking it now.

“Oh, no…” Lewis sounded horrified, and much closer than the others - like he was right there in the room with Arthur. “Oh, god, you-. You haven’t been that thing since-.” A sense of panic was building in his chest, but it didn’t feel….right. It wasn’t his emotion. Arthur realized dimly. Was it Lewis’? How could he even tell? “Oh no. No, no, no…” The darkness around him started to lighten as Lewis pulled back, and out of the partial possession.

Arthur’s knees wobbled, suddenly feeling like half-set Jello, and he dropped to the floor for the third time that hour. This time, however, he was followed by the ghost - by Lewis - and pulled into a crushing hug. The little spirits were back, but their teeth weren’t bared anymore, and their claws were sheathed. They squirmed into the hug like cats seeking affection, whispering wordless noises once more, and patting at Arthur’s hair and shoulders as if to comfort him. Arthur himself took a slow, shaky breath, and squeezed his eyes shut before worming his good arm up into the hug, and shoving himself out of it.

The ghost let him go, arms still outstretched while wearing a painful expression, and Arthur sucked in a sharp breath. He - Lewis - had his face back again, just as he had at the top of the cliff. Arthur had thought the worst thing he’d ever felt was that furious scowl being directed at him…but now, he thought this heartbroken frown had it beat.

“What the fuck is going on?” Arthur whispered. In the empty trailer, his voice didn’t need to carry far. The little spirits surrounding them began to fidget and shrink, and one by one, went to hide behind their master again. Lewis finally realized that Arthur wasn’t scooting back into reach, and let his arms sink down into his lap. 

“I…” Lewis hesitated, as if surprised by the loudness of his own voice in the silence, and swallowed nervously. Arthur wondered how that worked. “I think…I owe you an explanation…”


End file.
